Thursday

Today started off with lots more painting, which was followed by lots of rain creating a big mess! We had to give up on a half painted playground and leave the local boys to complete the job over the next week or so.

We finalised construction, including the additional pieces in the kindy area. Class 5,6,7 and 8 worked together to develop playground rules. A sign writer was enlisted (a lady from the parent's committee) but she will need to wait for a dry day to write up the rules. The school requested that we develop a name for the playground and our kids decided on Wallaby Park (in reference to the wallabies of St Andrews).

Tarli, Kiarra and Jess got lots of school work done and then did an awesome job teaching their classmates in class 3/4 to make woollen mandalas and finger knitting - it was very chaotic with 23 children all very excited and needing assistance. The girls had groups of 6 students each and all explored different styles of teaching and demonstrating. Although children speak some English the girls really had to work to teach the children, but they did really well and all children happily produced at least 1 mandala and some did finger knitting. The teachers teach so differently to Australia with rote learning and very few resources.

Children in the team have all had moments of shining (amazing to see what they are capable of) and moments of utter meltdown!

We had a village tour and learnt about the local way of life - cooking, crab fishing, farming etc. Very colourful, different to our way of life: no fences, very active, people in every house, a lot of dogs. Kids loved looking at all of the scattering crabs in the mud and it was very hard to pull them away from the mud and crabs to continue the tour. Rubbish gets piled and burnt next to the river - not ideal. The highlights for the kids were all the dogs and cats. Everyone getting a better appetite each day and learning to enjoy the local food. More river fish today (maybe that will be enough after seeing the rubbish system).

Preparations are underway for tomorrow's celebration with students practicing songs and the catering ladies planning the meal.

A beautiful finish to the day with a break in the rain and some of the kids (and adults) trying out the playground with lots of laughter especially when "Spooky" the dog chased all of the kids up the climbing frame (and could even climb 3 rungs!). It has been a great group of kids and workers on the playground - so much laughter and fun.

Wednesday

Today was a quiet day off for little boys and Emma. They visited the supermarket, the market, found some thongs for Noah, and spent the rest of the day swimming, playing lego and watching movies. Noah and Tane noted how stinky the fish at the market was, the limping cat by the pool and all the cane toads hopping around. Emma caught up on some project administration and homework correcting.

The workers reported it as being "bloody hot" today. Lots of construction work completed -  grinding, drilling and more drilling! Painting commenced. Sharing of resources was a challenge  - only 2 drills, 1 grinder, 2 "tookies" (hammers) and other tools, it was sometimes hard to keep track of where all of the tools were.

Byron and Riley walked to a cane field and Riley introduced Byron to sugar cane chewing. A man with a cane knife prepared it for Byron who was pretty impressed. This was followed by volleyball with some young people - its incredible how much fun can be had with laughter even when not using a lot of words. The girls practiced making God's eye wool mandalas as a craft activity to demonstrate to the class tomorrow and gots a good chunk of homework done.

We had a debrief over pancakes, followed by dinner and a movie night, complete with popcorn, while the adults enjoyed a few G&T's outdoors. The kids felt it was a really long day - perhaps reflective of the late night beforehand!

Tuesday

Lunch today was cassava, curries, Fijian donuts in syrup, coconuts, rotis and more. The kids loved the donuts!

A big day on site this morning preparing for the arrival of the concrete truck which managed to drive through power-lines in haste when the villagers had a chance to use excess concrete - luckily no one was hurt!

Tarli did a super job coordinating a game of very noisy charades with class 3 and 4. Riley and Byron, with help from Tane and Noah, played games with kinder kids (Whats the time Mr Wolf, Pirates Treasure, Duck Duck Goose) and footy with the bigger kids. The girls continued in their classroom.

Matt had a local haircut and visited the hardware store en route to work today. He also gave the men a chainsaw lesson - teaching them basic chainsaw maintenance and safety. We are not sure if he remembered to advise on steel caps and safety glasses!

After digging 3 great holes in the kinder ground we found out they were in the proposed garden area and had to fill them in and dig some more - all in good spirits.

The team had a great time at the Radisson Blu Hotel on Tuesday afternoon. The kids were famished and exhausted after a day at school and then hours on the waterslide. This resulted in a scramble for delicious spring rolls and pad thai at the Radisson's new Thai restaurant. All slightly delirious laughing at the small sizes of the meals in comparison to the generous Fijian lunches

The afternoon was actually a great opportunity for the team to see the contrasting worlds within Fiji and the kids all commented on the differences observed.

Noah's bedtime quote - "Can I have a sleep day all day tomorrow. The days are soooo long and the nights are just too short", we had to wake him up in the morning by standing him up and walking him around.

Monday

A great start to the week with Matt and Sophie appearing to be super organised when they had their family ready to depart 30 minutes early (7am!) because their room clocks were 30 minutes fast. In contrast the local volunteers were slow to arrive but eventually we had 6 strong men ready to dig holes.

And dig we did! The sand under the top clay layer made for easy digging but it was still hot hard work. Sophie enjoyed comparing the work site to her role at home writing Safe Work Method Statements. Here we have kids, dogs, grinders, bare feet, thongs, power cords, chainsaws all in the mix.

The team kids spent the day in various classrooms after having to sit at the front of assembly (99 students) and introduce themselves. The children sing so loudly that our kids would have blocked their ears if they thought it wasn't rude. Byron didn't enjoy the classroom (class 7-8) as it was so hard to concentrate on his own work and the classroom work "was way too easy". Tarli, Jess and Kiarra were all in the same classroom (class 3-4) with plenty of Australian worksheets to tackle, but faced some challenges with the noisy environment. Noah attended class 1-2 and did a great job playing with his class mates at recess. Tane went to kinder and taught them thumb war games. They were all straight in with no fuss - well done kids!!

The hardware deliveries arrived, but were incorrect - three visits later all materials on-site and ready for construction.

Morning tea and lunch was fantastic traditional Fijian food - dalo, bush bananas, roti parcels, fruit, coconuts, cake, curries. Byron and Riley played rugby with class 2,3 and 4.